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Lindsay Lohan pleads no contest in necklace theft, has a June date with jail

May 11, 2011 | 12:32
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Lindsay Lohan didn't appear in court Wednesday, but she did bite the bullet and plead no contest to misdemeanor theft, via attorney Shawn Chapman Holley. She was sentenced to 120 days in jail and 60 days of community service, to run concurrently with the sentence of the same length that she got April 22 for violating probation.

The actress must report to the women's jail at the County Regional Detention Facility in Lynwood on or before June 17 to begin her sentence. She spent 13 days behind bars there in August before heading to rehab, also because of a probation violation.

Lohan was facing a misdemeanor theft charge -- reduced from a felony -- for allegedly wearing a necklace out of the Kamofie & Co. boutique in Venice without permission in January. The no-contest plea entered at the Airport Courthouse hearing, which was streamed live on TMZ, has the same effect as a guilty plea, but cannot be used against her in civil court.

Judge Stephanie Sautner also sentenced Lohan to three years' probation, to be formal through Nov. 11, when probation in what the judge called "the Beverly Hills case" is set to end. If Lohan is done with her probation violation jail and community service by then, it will be converted to informal probation. Lohan must also complete a "shoplifter's alternative" program, undergo psychological counseling and, as always, obey all laws.

In addition to paying $180 in fines, Lohan must also stay 100 feet from Kamofie & Co. and not contact them in person or through a third party. "That means don't send flowers anymore," said the judge, referring to an apology bouquet delivered to the boutique in February.

Though prosecutor Melanie Chivera had requested substance-abuse counseling per the recommendation of an earlier probation report, the judge opted simply for psych counseling, saying she and Holley had conferred earlier and agreed that Lohan had problems other than substance abuse and was "self-medicating for those."

Sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore said a 120-day sentence would probably be reduced to about 71 days for good behavior, according to L.A. Now, with actual time served likely reduced to 14 days -- about 20% of the original sentence -- due to jail overcrowding.

Lohan has applied for house arrest and seemed likely to qualify, Holley said. Sautner made it clear that if house arrest with electronic monitoring were granted by the sheriff's department, Lohan would not be allowed to leave home during her that time to do community service.

"That would be double-dipping," said Sautner, who also referred to the possibility of early release -- something she said she has no control over -- as a "volume discount."

Chivera said after the hearing that Lohan's sentence, including the possibility of house arrest, was "consistent with any other defendant with similar conduct and a similar record."

Different from any other defendant was the matter of paparazzi staking out the Downtown Women's Shelter, where Lilo has started her community service. The judge asked that paps "stop violating the privacy of the women down there. Despite the hard times they've fallen on, they still live a life of dignity and they are being hounded by the paparazzi" who are trying to get shots of Lindsay.

"There's got to be somebody in life more important than Miss Lohan to follow," Sautner said, noting that although she had no jurisdiction over paparazzi, she would get the Los Angeles Police Department involved if the hassles continued.